America (The Book)

"There’s not much of a political agenda in this book, although I guess the writers are largely on the left, but it’s just fall-off-your-chair funny. They go through the entire history of America and satirise accepted mythology in brilliant fashion. It’s made up like a textbook. It’s so funny it’s almost too much for a book. There are 20 good jokes per page and it’s 400 pages long. By the time you make your way through you’ll be in awe of the ability of the writers. I do think it’s an acknowledgement of the power of comedy and an acknowledgement of how many people turn to comedy shows to get educated about current events. Politicians want to be seen by people that are turning to the Comedy Channel for their news so they go on The Daily Show . Jon Stewart sometimes will take on these elected officials harder than you’ll ever see on a regular newscast. That’s another reason people tune in. In satire you have to go after your target full-on. I feel like soft satire falls short of funny. You really gotta cut deep. But I’m not modelling myself after Stewart – I actually think we’re very different. The only thing that’s similar about us is we’re both left-wing comedians. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter My tone and my outlook on the world is different but we live in a world that doesn’t have much satirical political comedy out there. Left-wing political comedians get compared to one another because there aren’t that many of us. But I can’t say I dislike the comparison. I love getting compared to Stewart or Hicks."